Making Sense of Media

Making sense of media

Making Sense of Media is Ofcom’s programme of work to help improve the online skills, knowledge and understanding of UK adults and children.

We do this by sharing our own insights, based on evidence and research, and by galvanising the wider media literacy community to progress and pilot activities and initiatives in support. This work builds on Ofcom’s substantial body of research into the UK’s media habits, attitudes and critical understanding.

In this section you can find links to our relevant media literacy and online market research, along with other information about Making Sense of Media, including our advisory panel and details on how to join our stakeholder network.

Our five priorities for promoting media literacy: engage, initiate, establish, evaluate and research

Our online media literacy priorities

Our approach to promoting online media literacy is multi-dimensional, and considers a number of different aspects. These include:

  • what users do and experience online;
  • how media literacy initiatives can promote digital skills; and
  • how the design of services can impact on users’ ability to participate fully and safely online.

We will focus our online media literacy activities on five areas. You can find out more about these below.

Engage

Engage with a wide range of media literacy practitioners

Initiate

Initiate pilot trials and campaigns to promote online media literacy

Establish

Establish best practice design principles for media literacy

Evaluate

Evaluate the effectiveness of media literacy initiatives

Research

Research the state of media literacy and share our evidence base

Network and Panel

Use sector expertise to inform our work